Preschool Activities to Accompany Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash

I love picture books that rhyme!
  
I find them particularly fun to read and the pace and length of them is generally a good fit for my more "wiggly" students.  

One of my favourite rhyming books for springtime is Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks.  

It's silly and it's humorous and it's always a big hit with the kids.

I read the book to the class at circle time first.    

Then later in the same circle OR in my next circle, I present it using images on a magnet board.  

I give each child an image from the story.  Then I read the story from a typed page of the text that I keep on my lap. 

I could also read from the book on my lap, but I find it easier to use my typed out version.  Then I don't have to flip any pages.  

Each child places his image on the magnet board when it comes up in the story.  

There are 20 images required for the story and I have 20 kids in my class.  

If my class was larger, I would print multiple copies of certain images so that I would have one for everybody.  

As you can see in the photo, I just drew two clotheslines on my magnet board with a wipeable marker to set things up.  Quick and easy!  

I glued a button magnet to the back of each image and wrote the number corresponding to when the image appears in the story, as well.  

This time, I used a glue gun to attach the magnets. 

Even better glue for attaching magnets though is E6000. Especially if the kids are going to be able to play with them!

After reading the book, I put out the following activities to match the theme: 

*Ordering the Mrs. Mc Nosh Story Images from #1-20
Students can hang the images in order as I did when presenting the story.
They can do this on a magnet board or on a yarn "clothesline" tied between two chairs.

I provide a number line like the one below for those who need it for reference.  (Note - My new number line goes up to 20.)

* Sock Matching and Hanging on a Clothesline
I have a set of 9 different pairs of large striped sock images that students match and hang "to dry." 
Here's a sample of what one of the pairs looks like.

Count and Clip Cards
We use these cards for counting practise.  Students attach a clothespin to the number that corresponds with the images.

Sock Pattern Cards
Which sock comes next?  I added magnets to this activity to add to the fun! 

There's a variety of patterns including ABAB, AABB, and ABC to keep things interesting! 

*Cut and Paste 
I use these printables for students to colour and cut out pictures of things Mrs. Mc Nosh hung on the clothesline.  
They are also encouraged to use their imagination and draw their own items on the line!

If you'd like a set of these activities to go with the story Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash, take a peek at it in my shop HERE!  
It might become one of your favourite go-to Spring books, as well!

Coffee Filter Umbrella Craft for Spring

Now that it's March we decided it was high time we take down our Snowman Bulletin Board!

We never did get any snow this year, but we did get lots of RAIN.

And as the rain continues, we decided to make coffee filter UMBRELLAS the "stuff" of our new display!

 We started with a large coffee filter.

Then we folded it in half and wrote the student's name on it in pen.    

Next, we used a dropper to add spots of colour all over the filter, trying to cover it so that no white was showing.

We used ice trays to hold the colours, which were made from water mixed with food colouring.  

We also made sure to have the kids wear paint smocks. 

As you probably know, food colouring is almost impossible to remove from clothing!

We laid the filters to dry on a tray.

When they were dry, we added a pipe cleaner handle.

We'll be stapling some of the umbrellas onto our bulletin board display, the rest we taped to our classroom windows!

It's starting to feel a little more like spring already!

Spring Songs and Activity Ideas for Preschool and Kindergarten

I can once again hear the birds chirping like crazy in the morning.  

I'm so happy to hear that sound!

Despite the rain and gloom we've had this week, spring must be on its way!

So this weekend I pulled out my favourite Spring songs and activities to get ready!

One of my favourite go-to songs for spring is my Baking a Pie song.  

My daughter filmed me performing this song a summer or two ago.  

  It actually took about 5 tries to get a version that was acceptable to post.  

Between the dog barking, the dog begging me to throw his ball, the dog running into the picture...let's just say it was a bit more challenging than expected!  

Here's the culprit!  

But anyway, I'm not too proud to share my video 

 here with you. 

(By the way, my voice is not really that high in person...   

 I was just trying to "be the crow."  :))

This song has been a big hit in my classroom.  

It's unique, has a quirky ending, and the kids can learn it quickly due to the repetition. 

The words and puppets for "Baking a Pie" are included in my Spring Unit along with 10 additional activities for

 Centre Time and Circle Time.

Below is a sample of four more of the 11 items in the unit.  The details of how each item works is written on the images.

And my Froggy Fish 'n Match Number Game!

You could set up this fishing game on a table on days when you want to keep life simple, but if you want to add another element of fun, on some days you could also create a little "fishing hole" as you'll see in the post HERE.  

If you're in a part of the world where spring hasn't hit yet, just hang on.  It's comin'!

And if you want some more fun activities for the season, check out my full Spring Unit for Pre-K and K in my shop!  

It includes the 5 activities shown in this post plus 6 more! 
Click HERE. 

 If you don't want to miss any ideas and freebies from Teach Easy Resources Blog,

 click on the Subscribe button on the right margin of this blog!   

Catchin' Frogs and Learnin' Numbers - A fun activity for Center Time!

As a kid I always loved pretending to "fish" at the annual school fair.  

Do you remember those fishing booths at the fair? 

There'd be a big wall that you'd have to cast your fishing line over and then someone on the other side of the wall would attach a prize for you to "reel" in.   

I always found that station so exciting!

My enjoyment of this activity as a kid spurs me to set up at least one fishing game for my class every spring.  

Last year, the activity ended up being fishing for frogs in a pond.

I created the station by flipping one of our tables on its side and then decorating it to look like a pond.  

 A blue tablecloth would have been preferable, but I thought I'd work with what I hand on hand!

The fishing ROD is created from a paint stir stick.  
The fishing LINE was created by twisting a series of pipe cleaners together.  (Long ago I learned the perils of using a string or yarn fishing line.  You spend most of the class trying to untangle it!)     

At the end of the fishing line, I looped the pipe cleaner through a clothespin to form the HOOK.  

Here's a photo of the clothespin "hook."
  Sorry I don't have a better photo of the full rod, but I'm sure you get the idea!

To play the game, students cast their fishing line over the table.

The children on the other side of the table attach the clothespin to one of the frogs.  

When the frog is attached, the children behind the table tug on the line to let the fisher boy or girl know it's time to reel in their catch. 

The "caught frog" is then placed on the lily pad that has the matching number of flies!  

If you'd like to play this froggy fishing game in your class, I am currently offering the brand new updated version of all the frogs and lily pads you need for this activity in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. 

It includes frogs and lily pads numbered from 1-12, as well as a set of frogs with numbers 1-12 represented in various forms (i.e., with tally marks, ten frames, and dice).

I should also mention, that the set includes directions for making this an easy to set-up table top activity.  

Some days, simpler is better!

The kids get to fish either way, and practice counting, numeral recognition, and subitizing at the same time!

Find this Froggy Fishing Set HERE!

Craft for Camping Theme and a Marshmallow Treat

Kids love camping.  And I'd say at the top of their list of reasons "why" is because it gives them a chance to eat lots and lots of MARSHMALLOWS.

And who can blame them?  

Roasted marshmallows are "pure goodness!"

With all the enthusiasm over marshmallows, we decided to make pretend fires and marshmallows on a stick as part of our camping theme. 

Materials you need:

red/orange/yellow paint
paint brushes 
popsicle sticks
white pom poms
cotton balls
glue
brown paper cut into various log shapes
background paper 

  To begin, you can either paint each child's hand with the paint or simply have them place their hand straight into the plate.

The kids can make as many handprints as they like, but we tended to do about three.

After making their prints, the children washed their hands, and then came back and glued the log shapes to the paper underneath the "fire." 

The marshmallow on a stick was made by gluing a pom pom or a cotton ball to their popsicle stick.

Once the craft was finished, we stayed at the table and pretended to roast the marshmallow on the fire, carefully turning it and cooking all the sides.

When it looked like it was perfectly cooked, we blew on it, and of course pretended to EAT it!

This was a fun little activity to do with a few kids at a time at our craft table.

Now pretending to roast marshmallows is fun, but eating the real ones is obviously even better.

At home, my kids and I can sometimes be caught actually roasting marshmallows over our stove when we want a quick treat.  

We just pop a marshmallow on a fork or at the end of a metal skewer, turn the stove element to HIGH and get to roastin'.

Ah, perfectly cooked!  YUM!

On a side note, I have my first Rafflecopter giveaway running right now for a free
Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses Unit! 

See the unit and enter {here}.

Also, I've linked this post to the No Time for Flashcards list of ideas for summertime. For more summertime fun ideas, you can go join the party {here.} 

    

To see other indoor

camping ideas, click on the images

below.